Editor’s Note: The following article is excerpted from PC World. To read the full article, click here.
Innovative Web applications, powerful processors, spectacular HDTVs, and creative game consoles—we asked you for your favorites and added lots of our own for our annual roundup of the best hardware, software, and services. Then we looked at each product, rating and debating its design, impact, performance, and value to create our ranking of the best tech products available, from 1 to 100.
Here’s just a sampling of some of the Top 30 choices that should be of particular interest to Mac users. Be sure to check out the complete list.
It’s superfast, it’s not too expensive, and it uses less energy than its predecessor does. But could Core 2 Duo be too good? Unless AMD can respond to its startling success, the absence of competition could drive up desktop PC prices. That’s how terrific this CPU is. ( desktop CPU; $150 and up)
A Mac OS application in PC World ’s Top 10? You bet. With a simple interface and improving 3-D acceleration, Parallels offers the slickest way to run Windows (or any other OS) on Apple’s beautifully designed Intel-based hardware. ( virtualization software; $80)
9. Apple Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”
Quick: Name a good Vista feature that goes beyond what’s in Tiger. Yeah, we can’t either. ( operating system; $129)
11. Apple TV
Apple’s media streamer focuses on doing a beautiful job at a few key tasks. Now that it’s out in the wild, hackers can focus on making it do a bunch more cool things. ( media-streaming device; $299)
17. Pandora.com
Sadly, the current scrap over Internet-radio royalty payments may turn this award into a eulogy for Pandora, a nifty Internet radio service that learns your preferences and plays songs you’ve never heard but will probably like. ( digital music site; free)
23. Nikon D40X
Nikon’s shockingly affordable entry-level digital SLR includes a capable help system so that SLR newbies can get the most out of the camera. ( digital SLR camera; $599)
26. Apple iPod, 80GB
Apple may not want to proclaim it the true video iPod, but this 80GB model is more than capable of storing a complete MP3 collection along with a few movies and TV shows. ( MP3 player; $349)
Other Mac-related 100 Best Products selections
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